Sophie Applebury/Beat Sheets
The Soul Spoiler= Just a tab-cover in case you really don't want to see my dirty secrets. |-| Aspirations= *Sophie would like to get settled in Kingsmouth, including finding a place for her and her family to live, locating some sort of cover identity, and familiarizing herself with the city's criminal underbelly. After that, she would like to begin her work for The Shadow, while earning some of her own money on the side. Ultimately, she plans to uncover the identity of 'The Shadow' and then decide her next move, whether it be escape, murder, or reluctant continued service. |-| Breaking Points=What is the worst thing your character has ever done? *Sophie has lured tourists to their deaths, eaten said tourists for sustenance, stolen goods and cash from the defenseless, and murdered for survival. While it is difficult for her to pinpoint the worst thing she has ever done, Sophie most regrets sending the innocent tourists to die gruesomely at the hands of her 'god.' What is the worst thing your character can imagine doing? *There is little Sophie has not already done, but the worst thing by far that she fears is sending her remaining family to their deaths, in service to a cause she does not yet comprehend. What is the worst thing your character can imagine someone else doing? *Similar to the last question, Sophie believes the worst thing someone else could do is harm her family, which is exactly why she is risking her life to keep them reasonably safe. What is the most traumatic thing that has ever happened to your character? *The night of her 'graduation party' after finishing high school, she was to be bred by a boy loyal to her god's sister. She had to kill half a dozen people and saw half a dozen of her family killed as well, before the remainder could manage an escape. What important thing has your character forgotten? *While she has not outright forgotten it, Sophie struggles every day to retain and remember her humanity. Her surviving family symbolizes what is left of her humanity, and she does not dare fancy what might dwell on the other side, if everyone she holds dear is gone because of her. Beat Sheets Spoiler= Prevents accidental spoilering! |-| Universal= 'Daily (or Nightly) Life' What brings your character to Kingsmouth? How long have you been here? *Sophie has only recently arrived in Kingsmouth, in order to work quietly for The Shadow as its newest agent. She has come under threat of death to both herself and other family members that joined her on an escape from Brooklyn. She has decided to be a good little agent while secretly searching for the identity of her 'benefactor' and freeing herself once and for all. The Resources Merit represents what money you have left at the end of the day, after you've paid your rent and bought your groceries. Characters who do not have any dots in Resources are not necessarily homeless, but they are living hand-to-mouth. From where does your income come? Do you have a job? If so, what is it you do and where do you do it? If you don't have a job, how do you get what you need for day-to-day survival? *Sophie currently has no Resource merit, but she at least has a source of income. She is slowly but surely stealing her way into a more comfortable living. Still, she arrived with little more than the clothes on her back and a small suitcase full of luggage, so she certainly has a way to go. Not to mention needing to at least work with, if not care for, five other girls. Despite her criminal leanings, she is in search of a more stable job anyway. Whether or not you have a Safe Place or Haven, you have to rest somewhere. In which part of the city do you live/sleep? *Sophie and the five other girls that survived their flight from Brooklyn to Kingsmouth are presently holing up in the old Smuggler's Tunnels in the Ramsay district. It's nowhere near luxurious, but it's better than sleeping in cardboard boxes on the streets. Sophie should certainly know. Describe your housing, Safe Place or Haven. What is it like? How have you personalized it and made it yours? If you don't have one, what are you doing instead? How do you feel about that? *Sophie lives with her five compatriots near the old Smuggler's tunnels. They took over an ancient and abandoned home with a cellar and a few stable rooms. There was a second floor, but it caved in and destroyed much of the first. The cellar is not very spacious, but it's enough to store some supplies and even conduct a bit of clandestine work away from prying eyes. Even better, there's a dock connected to the cellar, which allows the girls an easy escape route if things go awry. Presently, most of the girls are hard at work repairing their new home and keeping it from falling apart even further. They hope to collaborate and construct a home even greater than the original. As for the couple of rooms that are passably livable, Sophie, Kaleigh, and Phoebe sleep in one while Leila, Jasmine, and Holly relax in the other. They own sleeping bags, which hardly offers much comfort, but all six of them believe it's far better than the streets. Plus, the entire district seems to have been practically set up for secrecy. Which is just as they like it. The World of Darkness is a dangerous place. What precautions (if any) do you regularly take to ensure your safety? *Sophie and friends make use of a collection of precautions. For instance, none of them arrive or leave the household during the day, and they're careful not to be followed once they return in the night. Anything they steal is either placed in a waterproof container and dropped down their cellar dock, or concealed in the many nearby tunnels. Nobody is ever invited over without thorough discussion, which means it may as well never happen. Most of them take an assumed alias, even if their names are technically not recorded in any database ever since they were born. They take turns as lookout, every second of every day, for either cops thinking to spot and evict them, or other varied dangers in an unknown city such as this. Leila, the resident hacker, keeps her eyes peeled for any news about the six, just in case. Jasmine has taken the lion's share of work fixing their home and creating a significant amount of security. As for the rest of the girls, they are either helping Jasmine, or keeping watch. 'First Contact' It's almost impossible to live in the World of Darkness without coming across something supernatural - though it's frequently easy to rationalize it away. Describe the first brush you had with the supernatural. What actually happened? What did you think happened? Did it change anything for you? *Nearly the moment she was born on a handful of piled cardboard boxes, she was sent to serve a blood god (aka vampire) for her entire living memory. Her mother supposedly died in childbirth, a Brooklyn prostitute without the money to pay for a doctor. Sophie was taken in by Rasius, inducted to be a new disciple in his cult-like lifestyle as an arrogant and deadly blood god. Rasius was foolish enough to allow her and other similarly aged children to enter public schooling, bribing the headmaster to ignore the fact that none of them should legally exist. When they graduated and were thrust into a ceremony by their god, the girls fought back and he was ultimately destroyed. But his Kindred sister Syrena survived, and she was not known for her lenience to the quickly fleeing Brooklyn youths. 'The Dark Time' Every life has highs and lows. Describe your lowest point - when you were most vulnerable, when you had the most to lose, when you hit rock bottom. What happened? What did it look like on the inside, behind the mask, when you felt like you were unraveling? *Sophie by far had the most to lose when Syrena sent her mortal male concubines to breed with her and her family, the night of their high school graduation. If she allowed it to happen, she would be tied forevermore to the monster that was Rasius, subjected to the cruelty of raising a child in such a horrible setting. So she decided to sacrifice everything she knew, killing half a dozen male concubines in her bid to help her family escape into a frighteningly new life. She felt like she was going insane, between her induced loyalty to Rasius and the possibility of finally feeling free. A part of her died that night, when she helped massacre a significant number of Syrena's followers and watched people she grew up with get murdered in retribution. Now, many miles away from that Brooklyn back-alley gang, all she has left to cling to are the five other girls that escaped with her. You can't keep all the balls in the air when everything is falling apart around you. Something - or someone - is bound to get overlooked or neglected. Who did you let down or abandon? How do you feel about that? *Sophie let down all the other girls that were killed during her bid for escape. She knew and loved them, as they were closer than family. There were just over a dozen of them, but now less than half remained. It's only been a few months since, and she feels like she's still walking through a dream. Not only did she lose her family, she lost what life she had in Brooklyn. She abandoned friends she made in school, and knew most of her life. And most strange of all, there is a twinge of regret and soul-crushing despair in her chest whenever she thinks of Rasius. She may have hated him, sure, but she also loved him like a father. Or perhaps, as a god. She did not really, truly want to see him dead. But now he is, and only a part of her is glad. Ideally, we all have a support network of friends or family, who will help support us when we need it - or at least be there to pick up the pieces. Who did you expect to be there for you that wasn't? Who let you down when you needed them most? What impact did that have on you? *All throughout her life as one of Rasius' subjects, she learned to adore her god. But he rarely, if ever, returned the sentiment. There were countless times when she came to him for help. If she was lucky, he'd simply send her to an older disciple of the 'faith.' If she was unlucky, he would beat her or worse for daring to not be a self-sufficient acolyte. The way Rasius treated her changed her greatly. She indeed became self-sufficient, even a leader among the girls he sent to school. But at times, because of him, she finds it incredibly difficult to even care about her own family. To be any more than self-serving in her goals. Being around the family that survived the escape reminds her of her humanity. Without them, she would be lost. When you're falling, you'll grab hold of whatever lifeline you can find. What did you cling to in your dark time? Did you make a friend who was wrong in all the right ways? Join a cult or a gang? Take up smoking? Suffocate your troubles with food? Describe the coping strategy you used. *Sophie had two support networks while growing up in Rasius' cult. She had her family, the other dumpster babies that were taken off the streets and given a home. They were there, in the same school as her, and going through the exact experiences she did. She could tell them anything and everything, and they could do the same. Despite the fact that there were fourteen of them at the time, she felt like she knew the smallest little details about each one. They were closer than family, and they were best friends. But on the other hand, sometimes it felt stifling to be around the people involved in her cult. It was a fresh of breath air when she met friends in school. She even had a couple boyfriends, and got to experience a few crushes. This is where her second support network came in, a group of people that had no idea she ate a human being for dinner the night before, or that she stole thousands of dollars for her god after school. With this bunch of people, she even learned the highs and lows of drugs, and it was only her lifelong friendship with Kaleigh that helped her ignore the allure of cocaine. Additionally, one of those two boyfriends, a jock she met in her local Brooklyn public high school as a junior, made her learn what it was to feel loved, and to love in turn. His name was Lionel, and their relationship started out beautifully. He was extremely sweet and giving, and they both excitedly shared their respective interests. They became pretty close, but when Lionel cheated on her during the summer, it was difficult for her to love him anymore. They tried to stay together anyway, but she had trouble trusting him, and she slowly grew apart from him. Lionel, on the other hand, strangely became more infatuated with her the more they pulled apart, like he savored the idea of being with her again now that they separated. She kept herself distant from him the rest of high school, but she always knew he was looking at her. And now that she's gone to Kingsmouth, who can say if he ultimately chose to follow? Someone, in a time of need - though it may be a different time of need than the one just described! - saw you were in trouble and helped you out. You owe them a debt that would be hard to repay, and if they ever called on you for assistance you'd do everything you could to help them. What happened? Who was this person? How did they help you? *Sophie grew up together with a girl named Kaleigh Richardson, or at least that's the name she liked to be styled as. Just like Sophie, she learned to steal and trick and kill, and just like Sophie, they were sent to learn academics from the local public school. Unlike Sophie, Kaleigh had a very solid head on her shoulders. Where Sophie always had her head in the clouds, Kaleigh was the one that kept the pair of them grounded. Among the fourteen girls, Sophie and Kaleigh were the closest. But it was only Sophie that narrowly dodged a lifelong addiction to cocaine and a joy in death. Certainly, they were both assassins, but Kaleigh refused to let herself be swayed by the allure of either activity. Their friendship was tested countless times, but there was no particular instance when their relationship was altered. They were raised inseparable, and they intended to die the same. One would do everything and anything for the other, and vice versa to the ends of hell and back. 'Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs' What is your hierarchy of needs? Physiological needs are likely to be different for vampires than they are for ghouls or humans, but the higher up the pyramid you go the more individuality there is likely to be. *Now that Sophie and the girls are settled in Ramsay, and enough thefts have been successful for requisite comfort, their physiological needs are largely met with. There is some question of safety, of course, especially among a group that values safety nearly to the extent of paranoia. Still, even that is steadily solidifying. Their home outside the Smuggler's Tunnels is slowly being rebuilt, mostly thanks to Jasmine's expertise. It is not even closed to finished, but at least it's been started. Employment has progressed even further, where the group has a pretty easy cash flow. Sophie's managed to acquire the confidence of a number of vampires by now, allowing her the means to serve for any needed blood or money. Love and Belonging has always been easy, since each and every one of the girls feels part of a tight-knit and iron-clad lifelong friendship. Esteem is good among one another, but perhaps questionable when it comes to those outside their home. They have had some success, as has been said, but there's a lot left to gain. Self-actualization has always been difficult, since none of them lead remotely simple lives. All in all, they are currently in a good place, but it would be preferable if they attained some measure of real status in the city. Sophie wishes to offer her friends more comfort than they have, living in sleeping bags and a broken down home. She wants equipment to help with a whole variety of potential future missions, instead of being without even a single gun. Lastly, she wants to earn some trust in the eyes of the vampires, and most especially her current prime god, The Shadow. Specify one solid need that currently drives your character. *Currently, Sophie needs to ingratiate herself to the local vampire scene, whether that mean serving them with her many talents, or simply being present for significant events so that she might be seen as a permanent fixture of their society. If she cannot do this, then she will be endangering her beloved friends by bringing them with her to Kingsmouth. Want is different than need. What is your deepest want? This is likely (but not guaranteed) to be the same thing as your long-term Aspiration. It may work in harmony with your needs, it may work in direct opposition, or it may be entirely unrelated. Why are you striving for this? What does it mean to you? *Sophie wants independence and luxury. She does not want to be controlled by The Shadow, and she does not want to be subservient to the vampires, even if she continues to work for them. She would like to understand their politics and culture now that they appear far less tight-lipped than Rasius or The Shadow, and she wants incalculable wealth and power at her fingertips. If she can free herself from The Shadow's grasp and ingratiate herself enough to the vampires that they allow her the ability to work for them without harassment, she will finally liberated. She will be able to do what -she- wants, and not what the vampires want. Her entire life has been in obedient service to the vampires, and she dearly wants this to change. She has learned to hate being controlled, and is both disgusted and horrified that The Shadow is threatening the lives of herself and her friends to force her to do its bidding. It doesn't matter if she'd be doing the same things once unbound. She'd finally be free to decide for herself, and she believes such a thing is extremely precious. What truly frightens your character is frequently (though again, not always) what stands in the way of them fulfilling their want or need. Everybody has fears and anxieties, even uber-powerful vampires. What do you fear? *Sophie fears for her friends, terrified almost on a nightly basis that The Shadow will be angry with something she did and decide to kill another of her family members. She would do anything for her lifelong friends, even if that means serving a night-born monster until her very last breath. |-| Human(placeholder)= 'Family' Under what circumstances were you born? Were you a planned baby, a happy accident, or an unwelcome surprise? *Sophie was neither a planned baby nor a happy accident by what's been indicated, which leaves an unwelcome surprise as the answer. She was the child of some streetwalker prostitute in Brooklyn and her client. Her mother couldn't afford to pay the doctors bills to give birth to her in the safe environment of a hospital, so she saw the world for the first time atop a pile of flattened cardboard boxes in the middle of a disgusting alley way. Naturally, her mother didn't make it through the process. Of course, Sophie has no memories of the event. This was told to her by Rasius, the man that took her in and raised her. In truth? She's decided not to let herself wonder about the truth, at least not until she is freed from The Shadow and her surviving friends are safe. Tell us about your mother. What was your relationship with her? *Sophie has no relationship with her biological mother, just a big old question mark and a feeling of abandonment. She never even knew her mother's name, since Rasius told her he simply couldn't speak to corpses. And yet, in many ways, she had a number of mothers. The older girls in the cult helped guide her into adulthood, teaching her elementary things like how to walk and talk. One in particular was a woman named Alice, a favorite of their god and a compassionate person to all the younger disciples. It was a rare sight to see her angry or even sad, though there were rumors that she drowned her sorrows in veritable rivers of their god's Red Blessing. Sophie thought she was special and cherished more by Alice than anyone else, but she realized later on that the closest thing to a cult mother acted the same with every youth. Rasius had a vampiric sister named Syrena too, though Sophie very rarely had the chance to meet her. When she did, she was coddled and treated pleasantly, but even as a toddler she could tell how fake that smile actually was. Tell us about your father. What was your relationship with him? *By now, it should be obvious that Sophie never met her biological father, a supposed client of her prostitute for a dead mother. Nonetheless, Rasius was the closest thing to a father. A father and a god, to be sure, but still an individual of authority. Contrary to Alice, he was a very firm and cruel entity, punishing even pre-teens with a beating whenever they stepped the slightest bit out of line. He never fully ghouled his children, not until they were mature adults, but he certainly afforded them vitae. In fact, the first day Sophie was brought in, swaddled in a bloody blanket hours after she was born, he fed her the Red Blessing to keep her strong. It was tradition to do exactly that with a new initiate into his cult, and it continued throughout her life. Where other fathers might offer gifts of ice cream or clothes or even tickets to shows when their children were good, Rasius treated the girls to a taste of his blood. It kept them in line, and few understood how powerful and alluring the vitae was at the time. It was merely something everyone wanted, cherished as the best thing a girl could receive for their birthdays or good grades. On the other hand, punishments were quick and cold for the smallest mistakes. He did not suffer the presence of a single cultists that did not do the absolute best. Even an A on a test was worth a small beating, or being sent to sleep in the Quiet Chamber, a locked room that acted like a prison for rebellious youths. Did you have any siblings or were you an only child? If you were an only child, how did that make you feel? If you had siblings, were you the youngest, oldest, middle child? Were you close to your siblings, or did you feel overlooked in the crowd? Did you feel responsible for taking care of them, or were you bullied? *Sierra had exactly six siblings, all girls. She was the youngest, while her oldest sister was nine years her senior. Being the baby of the family, her sisters cared immensely for her. Her eldest siblings took an active role in raising her, though she always wanted to escape them and go play outside in puddles and with boys. Nonetheless, they taught her almost everything she knew, from how to cook to how to think. Some of her sisters were very strict with her, while others just wanted to take her along with them on their own escapades. She enjoyed the latter most of all during the time, but found greater respect for the former as she grew up. She was never bullied, but she was always expected to do what she was told whether she liked it or not. Which is precisely why she fled to join street urchins in play. Who was the most influential presence in your life, growing up? What important lesson or philosophy did they teach you? *Her eldest sister, Charlotte, greatly influenced the way she was raised. Charlotte acted as her mother and father both, teaching her everything she knew and drilling discipline into her baby sister. She eventually went on to become a governess, despite her low status of birth. Charlotte taught her how not to break when things went awry, and to stand right back up after falling down. Sierra would not have been as ambitious nor as flexible to change her strategies towards success if it was not for her lessons. Who was your first love? What happened? How did that influence who you are and how you live your life? *Sierra's first true love was a cavalry officer named Luther Ashford, who she met after joining the Fishing Fleet towards India. She played hard to get for a while, but he could not be denied. After a spectacular proposal involving his regiment, she agreed to marry him. As was proper for a wife during the time, she remained at home to manage the household and await her husband's return. She had three children with him, a boy and two girls, and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. She learned what it meant to love another with all her heart and soul, which permanently marked a soft spot for family in her for the rest of her life. His commanding officer happened to be a Gangrel, whom eventually decided to Embrace him. For a time, she was confused about the changes he was going through without any explanation. After his Sire, Colonel Byron Stafford, suggested Luther ghoul her, she began to enjoy his company all over again. She shared in his discoveries of the Kindred Disciplines and joined him in his ambitions among the Danse Macabre. Byron found out Luther's wife was born under auspicious circumstances for creating a thrall bloodline. For that and the obvious love Luther gave his ghoul, Byron stole Sierra away and she never saw him since. Who is the most important person currently in your life? Tell us about them. *Sierra's Regnant, Yama al-Malik, is the person she most adores. She would do anything and everything for him, and has already done enough to desensitize her to many terrible acts. She first met him when he stole her away from Byron Stafford, during what amounted to an 'auction' of her womb. While he still uses her for the same rare function she was born with, he treats her like a favored pet. Over the many years she had spent with him, he has come to regard her more highly than any neonate Kindred, and even defaults to viewing her of greater value than most ancillae. He acts as if she was his Childe, since she has given birth to every single one of his most recently Embraced Childer and all of his ghouls. While it might seem improper to give a mere ghoul so much worth, Yama has always taken social doctrines and Traditions as mere guidelines for greater social success. He is a highly demanding Kindred that places extreme importance in the feudal hierarchy that the Danse Macabre tends to incorporate, but treats loyalty and respect in kind. Others are punished with death only in excessive circumstances, since he would rather find a way to leverage even an offensive tool to his personal benefit. Like most Rakshasa, he is Unaligned to any specific Covenant. However, were he to ever join one, which he believes would weaken his position with the others, he would most naturally choose the Invictus.